


I'm More Than Some Pretty Face

by trulywicked



Series: Superman [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Feelings, Friendship, Gen, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, M/M, Pre-Slash If You Squint, they give tony hives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-22
Updated: 2013-06-22
Packaged: 2017-12-15 18:24:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/852648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trulywicked/pseuds/trulywicked
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony finds Steve in Howard's old Cap decorated study and a conversation is sparked that might just lead to a beautiful friendship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'm More Than Some Pretty Face

**Author's Note:**

> Instead of the usual MCU living at the Avengers Tower (which I love don't get me wrong) I have the team living at Stark Mansion in NY since Howard's study was necessary for the plot point. This is not beta'd due to the fact that...well I don't have a beta. So if you spot any mistakes in tense or typos, feel free to let me know.

Tony entered his father’s study and froze at the sight that met him. Steve Rogers, still in the grandfather clothes SHIELD had given him that refused to just get rid of no matter how many times Tony held out a credit card and told him to ‘go find something you’d actually like to wear for God’s sake’, and staring at the original uniform he’d worn to perform for the troops, the one that was torn and stained from the rescue of the 107th and other men from HYDRA. Tony hadn’t even been aware that Steve knew about this little shrine Howard had built to him but then JARVIS might have alluded to it if Steve asked if there was anything left of his that he hadn’t been given yet.

Tony went to sit on the corner of the desk, not in any way foolish enough to assume that America’s big, blond symbol wasn’t aware of his presence, “Reliving the glory days Cap?”

Blue eyes looked over an impossibly broad shoulder, irritation flickering in their depths, a familiar sight, “I have a name you know Stark.”

“Yeah, funny thing that, so do I. Got a code name too. Not that I think you actually know either one since all I hear is Stark,” Tony smirked, seeing temper light in those blue eyes, and braced himself for the start of yet another argument. His expectations staggered to a halt when he saw Steve’s mouth open then suddenly snap closed, the blond head turning around to stare at the costume again before Tony heard four, soft words.

“You’re right. I’m sorry.”

He blinked, “Huh?”

Steve made an irritated full turn, face clouded with anger that cleared as soon as he saw Tony’s genuine confusion. Now the larger man’s expression was just a little guilty, a little exasperated, and...was that shame? “You’ve been trying from the start, not very good tries but you’ve been trying,” one oddly elegant hand lifted and scraped through blond hair, “and I haven’t been giving you a fair shake. I’m sorry for that.”

Tony coked his head to the side, surprised and maybe a little uncomfortable. He was an asshole, it was an accepted part of his personality and having someone, especially Captain freaking America apologize to him for reacting the way everyone did to his assholishness was...weird. “Eh nothing to be sorry about there Cap, I’m an acquired taste.”

“Steve.”

“What?”

Now the exasperation took the lead on his face, “My name is Steve. I’m not,” he waved a hand at the memorabilia all around them, “this. Outside of the field I’m Steve, just Steve. Can you save Cap for training and battle?”

“Sure, if you call me Tony. It’s not a hard word, two syllables, four letters, oh hey I’m a four letter word how about th-”

“Tony,” a reluctant smile was twitching at Steve’s lips at the babble.

“Ye~es Steve?” He fluttered his lashes ridiculously.

“Stop behaving like an idiot will you?”

Tony laughed, “Sorry, it’s part of the package. Anything else?” He squirmed when Steve’s face sobered. That usually meant a lecture or an accounting of everything Tony was doing wrong.

“Yeah actually.” Steve walked over and sat on the desk next to Tony, “This whole...place? Howard’s study? I mean I knew from what Fury told me that he’d kept looking for me but this is...”

“Obsession?” Tony angled his head to better see Steve’s face, growing ever more uncomfortable with where this conversation was heading. “Dad wanted his super soldier back.”

“I wasn’t Howard’s, ever. I mean I maybe caught a look from him once or twice but I wasn’t-”

“Gay? Interested in a dishonorable discharge or jail time?”

“Interested in him. I never much cared who anyone else loved, so long as they treated them right. I was crazy about Peggy and didn’t really notice anyone else like that. So I wasn’t his.”

“Pretty sure he wanted you to be,” Tony looked at a poster of Captain America that had been his father’s favorite, it did display Cap’s best assets well.

“He’d have been disappointed then if I’d not been frozen,” Steve’s tone was firm, “Not only because I didn’t want him but because what he wanted, who he wanted was this,” he waved at the poster, “He wanted Captain America. He never would have looked twice at...well.”

“Skinny Steve Rogers, the Brooklyn kid who got beat up in back alleys because he was bullied and because he stood up to the bullies? The asthmatic kid who drew when he couldn’t play street ball with the other orphanage kids? The guy who figured out the flag trick while he was wheezing from half a circuit of the army base?” Tony’s lips were curved up as he considered all the stories he’d been told when he was growing up, “Or the crazy little guy who jumped on and curled around a grenade fully expecting to be blown to bits?” he could see Steve turning bright red, “Yeah you’re probably right. I mean he might have looked twice at your drawing skill but that would have been about it.”

“How do you know about that stuff?”

“I grew up listening to ‘Aunt’ Peggy and Colonel Phillips talking about you. It was fun,” he gave Steve a crooked grin, “listening to the stories of the little guy who never gave up. I hope that’s not too creepy.”

Steve laughed, “No. It’s not. This stuff that Howard collected, that’s creepy. A kid being told stories of my crazy isn’t, even if that kid is now technically older than I am.”

“Who’re you callin’ old? I happen to be in the prime of life.”

“You’re thirty-nine, I was twenty-six when I went down. You are, in years actually lived, older than me.”

“But not wiser,” it was very nearly sung as Tony hoped they’d managed to get _away_ from the subject that he absolutely one hundred percent did _not_ want to talk about or even vaguely consider.

“Depends on where we’re standing I suppose. When I agreed to the procedure I was wanting to be like the other guys putting their lives on the line for our country. I told Bucky,” his voice stuttered for just a moment, “I told him that I didn’t want to be gathering scrap metal in a little red wagon as my contribution to the war. And I wound up a dancing monkey, which was worse. I was shoved out there like I was some big hero when I’d never even been on the battlefield. It was fake and I hated it. This, all this,” he looked around at the stuff Howard had collected, “Is the dancing monkey, the fake hero. Even after I started going into battle and leading all the posters and pictures and movies, it was all making me out to be...bigger, something more than I am. And that’s all Howard saw and wanted. Just some puffed up symbol and he tossed what was most important away to chase after it.”

“Ste-”

“Let me finish please.”

Tony clicked his teeth together at the request in Steve’s eyes and nodded. He couldn’t do anything else, not when Steve was opening up like this, showing a bravery Tony absolutely did not possess in any form.

“Howard didn’t do right by you. I can guess a little and suspect a lot more but that’s the core. He didn’t do right by you and I _want_ to say I’m sorry, to apologize for it, but I know you don’t want that,” he gave Tony a half-smile, “You’re a lot like me and I know pity burns. So I won’t say I’m sorry. I will say that I wish I’d been around to knock Howard for a loop for being such a jackass.”

Tony blew out a hard breath, “At some point I probably would have given my frontal lobe to see you kick Dad’s ass so...accepted in the spirit it’s said but can we please move on now? All this poking at Dad’s A plus parenting is giving me hives.”

Steve laughed and punched Tony lightly in the shoulder, “Okay smart-alek. What do you want to talk about then?”

“Your clothes. Come on hear me out,” he held up a hand when Steve started looking irritated, “You don’t like them, I’ve seen you wrinkle your nose at them! And I know the whole waste nothing mentality is a big honking part of who you are, but we can have those donated to people who need them and get you into clothes you actually _like_. Come on, let me take you shopping, it’ll be a bonding thing, great for the team,” he sing songed the last bit.

“Are you seriously using the team as an excuse to convince me to go shopping with you?”

“Yup! C’mon you do that morning tea and newspaper thing with Bruce, you heathens. You spar with Natasha, I’m beginning to suspect violence is her native language, and after you both talk in Russian over milk and cookies. You let Clint convince you to watch the most sickening horror movies imaginable with him while he cackles like some kind of mad scientist in between a running commentary that makes it painfully clear we never, ever want him going supervillain. I know you do _something_ with Thor but since the two of you do it outside the mansion I can’t make any snarky comments. You just go out and you both come back starving and smiling like someone handed you an armful of puppies to cuddle. You and Agent play rummy every Saturday. You even have lunch with Pepper every week.”

“I am not going to go shopping with you regularly Tony,” Steve’s lips were twitching again though, as if he was trying to keep from smiling.

“Fine we can hammer out a different bonding thing while we’re out.”

“One condition.”

“Name it.”

“I pay for my own clothes,” he smirked as Tony made a disgruntled expression.

“Alright, fine. You’ve got like seventy years of back-pay in your account anyway. I’ll spring for lunch though, no fancy places you have my word.”

“Shake on it?” Steve was smiling at him and holding out a hand.

“Shake on it,” Tony gripped Steve’s hand in a firm shake, peripherally aware of the way it was a little bigger than his own, then let go and hopped off the desk. “Well let’s get moving. The sooner get get out, the sooner we can get you out of the Grampy clothes and into Steve approved fashion.”

If the happy laugh Steve gave as he followed Tony off the desk just happened to make him feel warm right down to the core, well he could keep that to himself. He was just glad to help lighten a friend’s mood. Wasn’t he?


End file.
